In the turbulent swirl that has been the DC Extended Universe, Aquaman has been a weird highlight for a good chunk of it. The first film was overlong but embracingly silly, keeping the mythology DC is known for while also shirking some of the darker elements of the previous films. It also helped greatly that Aquaman himself, aka Jason Momoa (“See,” “Dune (2021)”), was clearly such a charismatic force.
Now, five years later, the only DC film to crack a billion dollars worldwide has a sequel, the much delayed “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” The film follows Aquaman, played again by Momoa, as he must team up with his villainous half-brother Orm, played by Patrick Wilson (“Insidious,” “The Conjuring”), to stop Black Manta, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “The Matrix Resurrections”), from killing his family and overheating the world using the mythical Black Trident, a remnant of the lost seventh kingdom of the sea.
If that doesn’t seem like too complicated of a plot, just you wait. Because returning director/co-writer James Wan (“Insidious,” “Malignant”) and writers David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (“Orphan,” “Wrath of the Titans (2012)”), Thomas Pa’a Sibbett (“Braven,” “The Last Manhunt”), and Momoa himself do as much as possible to bloat the film’s plot with various other subplots and just complicated the main narrative in general. It manages to deal with the missing seventh kingdom, the brainwashing Black Trident, climate change, Aquaman having a family and potentially retiring, brotherly strife with Orm, and reuniting the surface world with the undersea world.
It’s a lot to be sure, and while most of it can be fun in a cheesy, B-movie kind of way, eventually it all just starts to collapse in on itself. Momoa tries to keep the vibes up with his big grin and silly, machismo charms, and he does succeed, especially when opposite Wilson. The pair have a really great buddy cop angle going, mixing their antagonistic brotherly tendencies and when the film is just focusing on them, it is a good bit of fun. When you have an actor taking himself as seriously as Wilson is against someone doing the exact opposite like Momoa is, it makes for a great odd couple combination.
Even the visuals manage to keep up with the B-movie vibes. This is a movie with giant octopuses that fight in superhero battles and control mechs the size of small buildings. It all goes back to the sense of seriousness; when we see a character controlling a mech with giant levers with red balls on the end that look like they’re from a Thunderbirds episode in a literal secret evil Volcano lair, it can work. But it's the other moments, where the film takes itself far too seriously, where it all comes crashing down.
There’s a big sense of combining in the overall structure and plot. It feels like Wan and his writers had ideas for two or three other movies and decided to just squish them all into one. It feels bloated and overlong, despite barely being over two hours. There’s just so much smashed in here for seemingly no other reason than to pad out the runtime. Even the ending can’t seem to figure out whether it should go for a cool final moment or one that feels supremely, winkingly dumb.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is a bizarre film. One that seems to ready and willing to not take itself seriously in the slightest, and yet cheapens out at the last minute to try and become a grand superhero royalty lineage drama. Momoa isn’t taking any of it seriously, opposite Wilson who absolutely is, both trying to hammer their way through a script that feels like the love-child of a 50s science fiction TV show and a serious Snyder superhero movie. It’s so incredibly weird, and maybe that’s reason enough to see it. But it doesn’t make it good. 2/5
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